Martina Navratilova lines up a shot during last nights match (Photo by Matthew Healy).
Martina Navratilova has team spirit
By Joe Vieira
Thursday, July 17, 2008
MIDDLETON - Martina Navratilova retired from professional tennis in 2006, but the competitive nature that drove her to 59 Grand Slam titles during her illustrious career was evident yesterday.
That came even before she sparked the Boston Lobsters to a 23-19 overtime World TeamTennis win against the Springfield Lasers in front of 1,348 fans at Ferncroft Country Club.
Navratilova talked several of her Lobsters teammates and head coach Tim Mayotte into a second warmup session at 5 p.m., despite the 80-degree heat they already had endured during a practice six hours earlier.
It may have been extra game preparation, but it was also clear Navratilova, chattering and laughing with her teammates throughout, simply was having fun. Her charity work and commentary for the Tennis Channel may keep her busy, but Navratilova still relishes the chance to be a team player and an ambassador for the game.
“I play (ice) hockey, and that’s just to get great exercise and be on a team, which I love,” said Navratilova, who lives in Sarasota, Fla., “That’s what we didn’t get playing regular tennis, so it’s really fun to be part of a team.
“When I was hitting with (teammate) Raquel (Kops-Jones) I thought she was doing something on her volley, and then I said something to Jan-Michael (Gambill). I do that with anybody. I walk by a recreational court and I see somebody doing something wrong I’ll say something to someone to play better. It’s about passing knowledge and making people better players. I mean, that’s why they’re playing. No one wants to be stagnant and stay the same, I don’t think.”
That blend of intensity and enjoyment is why Lobsters owner Bahar Uttam was thrilled to have Navratilova back after scheduling conflicts kept her out of the 2007 season.
“See the smile on my face?” Uttam quipped. “She enjoys being here. It’s such a treat to have someone who likes to be here. She just came in from London and she’s rearing to go.”
Despite her eagerness, Navratilova didn’t step on the court until the fourth event of the evening. With the Lobsters holding a 13-11 lead, she and Kops-Jones made quick work of their women’s doubles match, 5-2. After losing with Amir Hadad, 5-4, in mixed doubles, the duo put the match away with a win in the second game of overtime.
“We got a ‘W’ which is what it boils down to,” said Navratilova. “I was able to contribute, so I was pretty happy about that. We had a big lead (after regulation), so it would have taken a miracle for them to come back, but you never know.”
Navratilova, who has played a record 19 seasons (four with Boston) for the WTT, has also continued to return because she appreciates what the league and founder Billie Jean King stand for.
“(WTT) is great because it’s all equal,” said Navratilova. “Everybody can contribute. Doesn’t matter of the gender, doesn’t matter how much you play.”
The Lobsters, who are now 4-5 with five matches left in the season, appreciate the input.
“I feel very privileged to have her on our team,” said Marie-Eve Pelletier. “She’s such a great player.”
Philadelphia Freedom tennis player Venus Williams in action during a match vs. the Boston Lobsters in World Team Tennis play. (Jim Davis / Globe Staff)
Smashing return: Williams flashes winning smile at Ferncroft Country Club in Middleton, MA
By Baxter Holmes Globe Correspondent / July 11, 2008
MIDDLETON - Venus Williams yawned as she entered a hotel ballroom here yesterday, where she would have an eight-minute press conference before being whisked away for countless meet-and-greets.
Her schedule warranted the yawn, but she still defended it.
"I was actually a happy tired," said Williams in designer jeans with a white hat pulled low. She spoke softly and in short sentences. She certainly seemed tired, almost at that stage of exhaustion in which everything becomes humorous. It seemed that way because even with her Wimbledon titles almost a week ago, one could glance at her relentless schedule and wonder how she has enough energy to smile, which she did gracefully.
Williams flew to Boston yesterday to play in the World TeamTennis matchup between the Boston Lobsters and the Philadelphia Freedoms, the WTT team Williams plays for, at the Ferncroft Country Club.
Williams played three of the five events - women's singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles - and led the Freedoms to wins in the first two (5-4, 5-2). The Lobsters won the next three events, but the score was tied at 21 at the end of the fifth event, men's doubles, so the match went to a tiebreaker - first team to 7 points wins.
The Lobsters' Jan-Michael Gambill and Amir Hadid led, 5-1, but the Freedoms' Alex Bogomolov Jr. and Travis Parrott came back to tie the score, 6-6.
Gambill returned Parrott's serve into the net on match point, giving the Freedoms the victory, 22-21. The Lobsters fell to 2-3 in front of a sellout 1,556.
"That was crazy," Williams said. "I mean, wow, at 2-6 we were subdued and then we kept getting point after point. That's what World TeamTennis is all about - the competition.
"I'm happy [the Freedoms] got three wins while I was here so now I can go home a happy woman," she said.
Though she said she was "fine," Williams seemed to show the effects of her demanding schedule since winning Wimbledon.
On Saturday, she won the singles and doubles titles at Wimbledon, the latter with her sister, Serena; attended the Champions Ball at a posh hotel Sunday in London, a celebration of her fifth Wimbledon crown; flew back to the US Monday; played against Delaware in Wilmington Tuesday; played Delaware in Philadelphia Wednesday; left her hotel yesterday at 6:45 a.m. to catch an 8:30 flight to Logan International Airport, which arrived in Boston at 10:30.
There may have been a second or two to breathe somewhere in there. Maybe.
After yesterday's 4 p.m. press conference, Williams toured through tents full of sponsors and VIPs who wanted photos and autographs. She then met with children from Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and took many more photos and signed many more autographs.
At 6:54, she walked onto the court. Four minutes later, she was introduced with credentials that, like her 129-mile-per-hour serve, overpowered her opponents.
Before she started playing, Lobsters first-year coach Tim Mayotte said: "We're hoping she's going to be a little tired and jet-lagged, a little. She's been doing the talk show circuit, and that's tiring."
She didn't have to play for the Freedoms immediately following Wimbledon this year, but as she did last year after winning the Wimbledon singles title, Williams did anyway.
"I knew that I was going to be here and hopefully that would be the result that I had a long and wonderful Wimbledon, which was great, and that I would be coming here off the heels of it," Williams said. "That's perfect for me and I'm going to do it every year. If I can win two Wimbledons a year and then come play WTT, I'll do it."
After the match, she sat at a table as the autograph line stretched outside the court and she yawned once again as a man asked her to pose for a photo.
She'll fly back home to South Florida at 7 today and she sighed when asked what she'd do when she got there.
"Just rest. I have no plans. I'm just going to rest," she said, laughing. She's earned it.
Boston Lobsters Coach, and former top ten ranked player in the world, Tim Mayotte
Mayotte makes return to game with Lobsters
By Baxter Holmes Globe Correspondent / July 3, 2008
"What ever happened to Tim Mayotte?" was a question on a popular tennis message board in 2005. The replies had the Springfield native in various places doing various jobs, but the former tennis star was actually in New York falling back in love with the game that had left him "completely burned out."
Mayotte can now be found coaching the Boston Lobsters - a member of World Team Tennis, a coed professional league cofounded in 1974 by Billie Jean King.
Mayotte was hired in March and his first match is 1 p.m. today, when the Lobsters open their season at the New York Sportimes.
The team's home opener is at 7 p.m. Monday against the Delaware Smash, and Venus Williams Night will be July 10 when the Lobsters play Williams and her team, the Philadelphia Freedoms.
Today's match will mark Mayotte's slow but steady return to tennis. He retired from the ATP tour in 1992, having won 12 singles titles and peaking at No. 7 in the world singles rankings following his silver medal at the Olympics in 1988. He even made it to the semifinals at Wimbledon in 1982, before losing to John McEnroe.
After his retirement, Mayotte spent five years as a television analyst and also was a member of the ATP board of directors. He then became "completely burned out with tennis and traveling," he said. He took some time off, mostly to tend to his son who was born in 1996, but also to escape the game.
For the past four years he has been coaching players at a New York tennis club. "As I taught, I kind of fell back in love with the sport," Mayotte said.
Up the road, the Middleton-based Lobsters were undergoing serious changes. In March, Lobsters owner Bahar Uttam moved the team from Harvard University to Ferncroft Country Club because he wanted the team to play outdoor tennis.
Uttam, who has owned the team for four years, also hired a sports management and marketing company to represent the team. And, Uttam said, he wanted a new coach.
Enter Mayotte. "I thought it would be nice to get him back into New England and be the coach of the Lobsters," Uttam said.
It fell together nicely from there: Mayotte was from the area, his brother John was the team's general manager, Mayotte had spent the past four years coaching, and was ready to get involved with the game again. "It felt like the right time for me," Mayotte said.
Mayotte addressed the team yesterday at its first meeting. Uttam also spoke and mentioned all the success of recent Boston professional sports franchises. "I said, 'Hey, you happen to be in a city that excels in sports, so let's join them,' " Uttam joked.
Living up to the lofty standards of the Red Sox, Patriots, and Celtics seems unrealistic, but Mayotte said he's looking forward to coaching professional players rather than the above-average-but-not-quite-professional players he coached in New York.
Mayotte will coach eight-time ATP tour champion (three singles and five doubles) Jan-Michael Gambill, the third overall pick in the draft, and Raquel Kops-Jones, who was drafted in the fourth round of the draft and recently advanced to the third round in women's doubles at Wimbledon.
And he'll also coach Martina Navratilova, considered the greatest tennis player of all time with 344 singles and doubles titles as well as 21 major titles. It is certainly special, Mayotte said, because he remembers the original Lobsters team from 1974 that included Navratilova.
"Now she's playing for us again, it's really amazing," Mayotte said.
But Mayotte isn't planning to spend his time coaching Navratilova. "I'll just basically give her the balls and get out of the way," he joked. "She literally doesn't need any coaching."
Tickets For Boston Lobsters Go On Sale
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 13, 2008
Tickets for the Boston Lobsters matches, including appearances by Venus Williams and Martina Navratilova, are on sale now at www.bostonlobsters.net or by calling (877) 617-LOBS (5627).
The Lobsters, New England’s World TeamTennis entrant, will play seven home matches in July at its new stadium at Ferncroft Country Club in Middleton. Other highlights on the schedule include Opening Night on July 7 against the Delaware Smash, and Family Day on July 13, in which Lobster players and Coach Tim Mayotte will work with young fans on the basics of the game.
Mayotte, a Springfield native and a long-time fixture in the Top Ten, will lead this year’s squad, which features Jan-Michael Gambill, one of the top American players in the world, as well as Israeli Amir Hadad, returning for his third year with the team. They will be joined by Marie-Eve Pelletier and Raquel Kops-Jones.
All-time great Martina Navratilova will also play two home matches with the Lobsters – on July 16 against the Springfield Lasers, and on July 19 against the Newport Beach Breakers. Among the stars playing against the Lobsters this year will be Wimbledon champion Venus Williams, who will join the Philadelphia Freedoms at Ferncroft on July 10.
Reserved seats are $25 ($10 for children) and box seats for $50 for the July 7, July 12, July 13 and July 18 matches. The matches on July 10, July 16 and July 19 are $30 ($15 for children) for reserved seats, and $60 for box seats. Fans can also purchase season tickets for $125 for reserved seats and $250 for box seats.
CONTACT: Jon Tapper, Boston Lobsters (617) 314-7804 (office)
Lobsters Ticket Information
Match
Children
(Reserved Seats Only)
Reserved Seats
Box Seats
July 7th, 12th, 13th, and 18th
$10
$25
$50
July 10th, 16th & 19th
$15
$30
$60
Season Pass
$70
$125
$250
July 10th Match Featuring Venus Williams
July 16th & 19th Match Featuring Martina Navratilova
Children are 12 and under
Children under 2 do not need a ticket
Group discounts are available, please contact Darlene Hayes at 508-435-6585
Season Box Seats Preferred box seats for all seven Lobsters home matches and access to Boxholder Hospitality Area
Season Reserved Seats Preferred reserved seating for all seven Lobsters home matches.
Corporate or Friends & Family Box Seat Package - $1,000
Four (4) box section season seats
Four admissions to Boxholder Hospitality Area
Four World Team Tennis Super tiebreaker souvenir programs
Name Plate
Group Sales (10+ people) — Call Darlene Hayes for details at 508-435-6585. Party tents available and include:
Admission Ticket
Private Tent (1 Hour and 45 Minutes)
Player "Meet and Greet" in Private Tent
Hors d'œuvres
Cash Bar or Included Beverages (depends on package)
2008 Lobsters Home Match Schedule
July 7
vs. Delaware Smash
7 pm EST
July 10
vs. Philadelphia Freedoms*
7 pm EST
July 12
vs. New York Buzz
7pm EST
July 13
vs. New York Sportimes
4pm EST
July 16
vs. Springfield Lasers**
7pm EST
July 18
vs. Washington Kastles
7pm EST
July 19
vs. Newport Beach Breakers
7pm EST
*Come watch reigning Wimbledon champion Venus Williams! **Come watch all-time Grand Slam champion Martina Navratilova!
Join Larry the Lobster for all the fun and entertainment!
